Is it possible that this terrible scenario can become a reality?

You bet. According to a recent article in the Sept. 11, 2011 edition of the Houston Chronicle: "U.S. and Canadian companies have dominated Alberta's oil sands for decades. Now, though, Chinese firms are rushing to snap up Canadian oil sands resources and invest in ongoing projects -- to the tune of $15 billion in the past 18 months in Alberta alone."

We have, then, the federal government in favour, pending an environmental assessment that will certainly be ignored if not favourable, a compliant provincial government and the second biggest financial power in the world financing much of the venture. Moreover, if the U.S. eventually does pass the Canada Keystone project taking the tar sands gunk to Houston, they can be counted upon to support China. Given their fiscal relationship, the U.S. has no other choice.

Here we are supposed to be fighting global warming and weaning ourselves off fossil fuels as we help the worst polluter on the planet, the tar sands, expand their business by exporting their product through the most sensitive environment on the globe, thence down our coast -- the most beautiful and dangerous coastline in the world!

The Vancouver connection

There is one hell of a big problem on the horizon related to yet another pipeline, the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which already is taking a huge quantity of tar sands gunk to Vancouver's harbour. From there, it is shipped through our waters to China either directly or after it's refined in Houston, Texas.

How so?

Let's look at pipelines and ocean spills, and what the statistics tell us:

According to an article by Mitchell Anderson published in The Tyee on June 2, a quiet application to the National Energy Board (NEB) may soon vastly expand oil tanker traffic through the waters of Burrard Inlet, making Vancouver the major conduit of oils sands crude and bitumen to China.

Trans Mountain Pipeline, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan that operates the 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) pipeline from Alberta to B.C. and Washington State, has applied to the NEB to enter into long-term buying contracts called "firm service."

They are also requesting to divert more Alberta crude and bitumen capacity to the Westbridge tanker terminal in Burrard Inlet and away from existing land-based refineries in B.C. and Washington.

The threat of this increased traffic (the present traffic is dangerous enough) is immense.

Rex Weyler, a cofounder of Greenpeace, says the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion "would mean that its capacity would increase from 300,000 barrels a day to 700,000 barrels a day," which would mean the "death of the inlet would be inevitable." (Remember that an oil spill is inevitable!)

If, for sake of argument, let's say that Enbridge decides not to use the Northern Gateway pipeline, and the Kinder Morgan pipeline was expanded accordingly. The daily flow into Vancouver's harbour would be an extra 525,000 bbl per day!

Are we gambling with anything at stake here, or are we only playing for matchsticks?

The answer is clear that we will have oil leaks in pipelines and tankers. Enbridge doesn't deny this, but writes confidently in an offhanded way about how they will handle these leaks. (See their webpage.)

What, then, are we looking at here?

In a nutshell, we have two new pipelines crossing 1,170 km of virgin wilderness. This raises the obvious questions: How long will it take for a response team to get to where the spill occurs? How will they manage a clean-up? Why would we believe the clean-up would happen in time to prevent any massive damage, given that the spill from an Enbridge pipeline into the Kalamazoo River, in a highly developed area, is still not cleaned up 16 months later, and never will be? What then will the damage be here in British Columbia? One must assume that sometime, the spill will get into one or more of the three major salmon rivers.

Silently slipping under the radar is the increase in size, capacity and delivery from the tar sands to Vancouver through the Kinder Morgan pipeline(s).

Again, the threat there is a certainty, and an ongoing one.

We can stop this

Let me ask this of well-meaning people who think that the risk is slight, whether it's from a pipeline or tanker. Where is the value to B.C. in these immense transportation undertakings?

If we're to take the unchallenged dicta from experts in this field, the spills are certain. How then can you justify putting our wilderness and coast to certain destruction, remembering that the companies admit that these spills will happen? And do it to help the tar sands continue the largest environment despoiler in the world to produce fossil fuels in great abundance!

Can we stop it?

Only if we are prepared to go the distance. There will be threats to meet from the federal government and courts, and there will be bribes offered. The threats will be brute force, you can bank on that.

I believe that the mass of B.C.'s population wants nothing to do with these projects and will happily use civil disobedience to enforce their views.

Before finishing, let's remember that any who are guilty of civil disobedience must be prepared to accept the consequences. Having said that, we must rally in huge numbers. We must be prepared to lie down in the path of machinery and when the expected injunction is achieved, we must be prepared to go to jail. In fact, if enough of us do this, there won't be enough jail cells to hold us.

Given the fatal environmental damage these international corporations will inflict, we surely must spare no opportunity to fight these pipelines and tankers with everything we can, short of violence.

[Tags: Energy, Environment.]